The Marauders, Episode II: Crow's Talon
by Ryden and Xephfyre
Summary: Black Crow. Tengu haunter of Zipangu's Buddha statue, and the chosen target of James and Ethan, two of the mightiest adventurers of the Marauders Guild. The hunt is on. Second entry for Crappishh's challenge, and part 2 of 7 of the Marauder's mini-series.


Disclaimer: I do not own MapleStory. This is a work of fiction, any resemblance of characters or events to real-life persons or events is purely coincidental.

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A/N: I decided to start this chapter off with a flashback scene because, well, it was the foremost thing I had writing on my mind anyway, and I decided a little elaboration on the history between the members of the Marauder's guild was in order. Also, since everyone reveals their epic secret powers later, and Tricia is not gonna appear anywhere else, no place like here in this flashback scene to show her own secret power. As always, don't forget to leave a review.

Prepare for very, _very_ heavy action, because at least half of this story's word count is just one giant fight scene.

Master and Chief and Arbiter Inc. presents (Michael-Bay-style): Explosions!

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Chapter 1

Crow's Talon

_"James, you've had a lot of stupid ideas before, but I swear to God this is just the worst one yet. Could you remind me again why I even agreed to come with you in the first place?"_

_The crusader only laughed, and swung his hand over again to grab onto another rocky handhold above him, pulling himself up another step. "Tricia, I only told you I was heading out to Perion's Deep Valley again to hunt Fire Drakes, and if I recall correctly your exact words were "Oh no, I'm not letting you go out there alone again. Remember last time when you said you were going into the Ant Tunnels to hunt Evil Eyes? How did you end up with a Tauromacis nearly gutting you?""_

_Grunting, James hauled himself another step up the cliff, the weight of his father's Heaven's Gate heavy upon his back but nothing he couldn't endure. "Trish, didn't I tell you that the Tauromacis incident was a fluke? I don't know how that one managed to end up wandering out of the Cursed Shrine, but I swear I really went down there just to hunt Evil Eyes."_

_Two metres below James, Tricia Telfair hung on to the cliff's rocky face for dear life, not being nearly as adept at rock-climbing as her beau. Her long raven hair whipped about in the face of the mountain's winds, and she quickly reached up for another handhold in an attempt to catch up with the crusader, not wanting to get left behind._

_"So why the sudden decision to hunt Fire Drakes? You're already a Crusader, James, you're much too strong for them. This wouldn't have anything to do with the rumors that a rogue Crimson Balrog has been wandering around this area, now would it?"_

_Under his breath, James cursed. So she knew the real reason behind his little excursion._

_"All right Trish, you got me there. Yeah, I'm headed out here to find that Crimson Balrog. Come on, you know what a fluke this is. How often do those things attack areas _besides_ those airships that travel between Ellinia and Orbis? We've got one outside of its home territory, we won't get a chance like this ever again." With another grunt, the crusader hauled himself one more step upwards, bringing him closer to his goal of the Deep Valley._

_Sighing, Tricia reluctantly pulled herself up after James, wishing that she could simply just teleport up to the top of the cliff - however she had no desire to leave James to slog his way up the cliff alone. Ever since he had made his Third Job advancement James had grown very, _very _confident - almost too overconfident. Going out after a Crimson Balrog solo when he was only level seventy-one_, _even with the special enchantments made on his father's sword; Tricia could only conclude that the crusader was in over his head. And no way was she going to let him do it alone if she had anything to say about it._

_Hence, she insisted on making the trip with him, and now here she was, struggling to climb up a cliff with her crusader boyfriend._

_Sometimes she made the stupidest decisions. Biting back another sigh, she raised another hand overhead to grab the next handhold._

_"Hey Trish." James' sudden call stopped the priestess in her tracks, and she looked up only to see a cocky smirk on her boyfriend's face. "Race you to the top."_

_Before Tricia could even respond, James had doubled his climbing pace, and was easily outstripping her by the yards up the cliff._

Oh no you don't_, Tricia thought playfully to herself. So James picked now to have a race, huh? Well, if that was the case, she had no more qualms about cheating then. After all, he hadn't said anything about using spells. Reaching over onto her back and pulling out her Dark Ritual, Tricia began murmuring the words of power._

_Several yards above her, James was heaving and grunting as he pulled himself up handhold after handhold. When it came to exercising, damn near nothing could beat a good climb up a mountain, and James took every opportunity he could to test his limits by seeing how quickly he could scale one. So far his record was reaching the top of Perion's West Rocky Mountain in six minutes, barring the time he had taken to fight off wandering monsters that had meandered into his path, but he intended to beat his record this time. His stopwatch currently read "3:44:69"; he had two minutes and fifteen seconds left to scale what was left of this cliff and reach the hidden entrance to Perion's Deep Valley._

_Panting from the exertion, James focused only on pulling himself up one hand at a time, step after step, until finally the summit was within sight. His limbs aching from exhaustion, James still pushed himself ahead, feeling the burn and reveling in it. Gasping for air, he pulled himself up the final handhold, and reached upwards to haul himself up onto the cliff edge, wondering how far below him Tricia was. However before he could even begin to speculate, a slim, soft hand caught his own roughened, calloused one, and he looked up into the mahogany brown eyes of his girlfriend._

_"Had a good climb, James?" Tricia asked cheekily, a smirk on her face to match the one he had given her mere minutes ago, and looking none the worse for the wear, whereas the crusader was sweating like a pig inside his plate armor._

_"Tricia, you lousy cheater." James said sourly, but gave his girlfriend a smile all the same and accepted her hand as she hauled him up onto the ledge. "You teleported up, didn't you?"_

_The priestess only answered with a giggle, and gave him a consolatory peck on the cheek before taking him by the wrist and dragging the exhausted crusader over to the wooden double doors in the cliffside that would lead to Perion's Deep Valley._

_

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_

_It didn't take very long for James to regain his stamina, and in ten minutes the two of them were slaying Red Drakes by the dozen. Even as one attempted to take a large bite out of James as he neared it, he dodged around its jaws, avoiding its razor-sharp teeth, and dashed forward with his Heaven's Gate, thrusting it in a Power Strike. The blow bit deep into the drake's neck, and the monster howled in pain as muscles and tendons were severed. Not relenting, James drew his Heaven's Gate back, and leapt up onto the Drake's neck, digging his fingers into the scales behind the juvenile dragon's neck in an effort to grab a hold._

_Roaring, the Drake shook itself violently in an effort to dislodge the crusader, but James' grip was too strong. Giving a cry of his own, James raised his Heaven's Gate over his head one-handed, and shouted, "Panic!"_

_The five combo orbs that were serenely floating around the pommel of his Heaven's Gate suddenly sank into the sword with a brief flash, and James brought the blade of his greatsword down, severing the Drake's head from its body in a single, swift blow. Quickly jumping off the suddenly headless corpse, James landed impeccably on one knee, smoothly sheathing his Heaven's Gate over his back as the Drake's head clattered to the ground behind him, its carcass following suit but a moment later._

_Three more Red Drakes surrounded him even as the one he had just slain toppled, snarling at the crusader, but James was unfazed by their display of viciousness. After a while, when one got strong enough, some dogs' barks eventually became stronger than the bites they could inflict upon him. These Red Drakes were nothing._

_As the Drakes lunged forward, hurling fireballs at him and snapping at him with their jaws, James dodged madly, retaliating with his own Power Strikes whenever he found an opening. His blade bit into their scaled flesh multiple times, but despite their wounds the Drakes kept coming. Panting, James took a quick glance at his Heaven's Gate's hilt, and saw the the full five combo orbs were floating there already - it was ready._

_Grasping his father's sword with both hands firmly and raising it over his head, James reversed his grip, and plunged it bladefirst into the ground._

_"Coma!!!"_

_The resulting shockwave of power swept outwards like a tidal wave, slamming straight into the Red Drakes surrounding him like a brick wall. The sheer concussive force of James' Coma attack took its toll on the wounds the Drakes had already sustained, and the three of them toppled all at once, not even having a chance to utter a sound as they died._

_Glancing yards away to his right, James saw that Tricia was giving the Drakes hell of her own. Swiftly teleporting out of the way of each fireball they sent flying at her, she would briefly appear in their midst, hitting the entire mob all at once with a Shining Ray before teleporting again out of reach, frustrating the Red Drakes to no end. Before long, she was surrounded by piles of Red Drake corpses almost as large as the ones that surrounded James._

_The duo continued hunting Red Drakes in this manner for the rest of the day. Hours passed, day turned into night, and their packs began to fill with drake skulls and looted pieces of equipment, but there was still no sign of the rumored rogue Crimson Balrog that was said to be wandering around the area. Practically bored out of his mind, James routinely gutted another Red Drake as it sought to make an evening snack out of him, and proceeded to salvage its skull to be sold on the market later. Tricia was doing the same at the other end of the valley - the two had split up in an effort to cover more ground, and if either of them encountered the Balrog, they would instantly alert each other via a signal flare gun Hiroshi had provided every one of them with._

_Just as he opened his pack and was about to stuff the Drake's skull into his storage compartment, the hairs on the back of his neck suddenly stiffened, and James' back went ramrod straight._

_He sensed it a lot more than he felt or heard it. James hadn't managed to survive so long by not trusting his instincts - in a fight, your instincts were one of the things that kept you in one piece, and James had learned from an early age to listen to that inner voice whenever he was in a battle. Animals survived purely by instinct, they had nothing else to go by but that, and at a human's very core, despite all the education and civilization, man was still an animal. And animals trusted their survival to instinct._

_Tossing the Drake Skull aside and slamming the flap of his pack closed, swiftly shouldering it, James threw himself to the side in a dodge roll, just barely evading the ebony black fireball as it streaked through the space he had occupied a split-second ago, and vaporized the rock upon which he had been kneeling._

_In a flash James had his father's Heaven's Gate drawn and held in a ready stance with both hands, eyes rooted to the spot he had just vacated. The fireball had burned a small crater into the ground, and it was still smoking, smoldering from within with an unholy fire. Even a full yard away from where he was standing, he could feel the infernal heat radiating from the burned-out crater, blistering his skin and prompting his sweat glands to start working overtime. _

_His heart hammering in his chest at the close call, James felt the hackles on the back of his neck rise again, and he reacted with split-second sharpness once again, swinging his Heaven's Gate backwards over his shoulder in a blocking motion so swift that his blade was but a blur._

_A set of razor-sharp claws descended upon his greatsword's mythril-forged blade with a resounding clang, and the blow damn near knocked his shoulders out of their sockets. The slash had been packing enough force to slice through a solid sheet of adamantium - if James hadn't blocked in time, he would've been sliced in two despite his plate armor. Nevertheless, the crusader was nearly sent sprawling from the strength of the blow, but he bit back a grunt of exertion and stood his ground, refusing to budge an inch._

_Behind him he could hear a demon's guttural breathing, and even his nose could pick up the stench of its putrid breath. Still, he didn't need to use his sense of smell or hearing to pick up the demon's presence - the sheer weight of its spiritual pressure, radiating incredible amounts of both sadism and malevolence, descended upon his shoulders like a physical weight, and to James it felt like he had a sword constantly pressed to his neck. The claws continued to push against his Heaven's Gate, but James determinedly held up his blocking stance and locked his arms in position, refusing to give in._

"Bah, another sssmall one. I sssensssed sssomething a little bigger. What a dissssappointing catch..." _James heard the monster's serpentine voice rattle itself in his ears, and a grin spread itself wide over his face._

_It seemed like he had finally found his missing Balrog._

_"What a _big_ surprise." The crusader drawled out cockily, backing up his Heaven's Gate block with even more strength and slowly forcing the Balrog's claws backwards, simultaneously ramping up the intensity of his spiritual pressure to combat the Balrog's own aura. The poor sod probably had no idea what he was in for. The very reason why the Balrog had sensed something bigger was what he was holding in his very hands, using to hold the Balrog's claws at bay. "I hope for your sake that you've got something valuable inside that big body of yours."_

_Ah yes, the legend of the Crimson Balrog. Long-time terrorizers of Victoria Island, they were the matured versions of the Jr. Balrogs that haunted the Cursed Shrine at the very bottom of Victoria Island's tunnel dungeons. Balrogs were rumored to be creatures more ancient than anything else on Bera, having been in existence even before humans had evolved from their ape predecessors, and the legend said that the Cursed Shrine was in fact a gateway to the Underworld, home to many species of demons, of which the Balrogs were but one of many different species. The matured Crimson Balrogs were most notorious for their cunning intelligence, even more so than their sheer physical prowess, or their might in the arcane arts. Balrogs were no mere animals - they were cunning in the extreme, and were masters of manipulation and deception. Their raids on airships that travelled between Ellinia and Orbis were the stuff of legend, but they also very rarely attacked other areas of Victoria Island too._

_The flying archdemons were beyond the ability of most adventurers to defeat alone, and they had been the death of many a foolhardy pioneer who thought himself too tough or too skilled for a Crimson Balrog. However if one was powerful of skilled enough, or had enough friends to back him up, a slain Crimson Balrog could cough up many valuable items and artifacts - most commonly, enchantment scrolls that one could use to improve one's equipment. Of course, given their fearsome reputation as incredibly powerful, heartless mass-murderers, most of the Balrogs James had encountered over his career as an adventurer had an ego to match their power._

"HA!" _The Balrog roared in contempt. _"You puny, pathetic human! I'll step on you like an ant!" _The demon laughed madly, and suddenly its claws curled themselves around the blade of his Heaven's Gate, locking him in position. Frowning, James pulled at his blade with all his strength in an attempt to extricate it from the demon's grip, but to no avail._

_Laughing, the Crimson Balrog raised its other arm in preparation for another blow, preparing to smite James like an insect beneath a hammer. The crusader's eyes widened as he redoubled his efforts to pull his Heaven's Gate from the Balrog's grip, and he only had time a utter half a curse before the archdemon's claws descended upon him._

_The hammer blow threw up a fountain of rocks and dirt as the Balrog threw all of its strength into that single punch aimed to pulverise the crusader, and as the dust settled the archdemon was laughing madly in triumph, presuming that he had subdued his victim already. _"Ha! These human insects just get easier all the time! This one barely even put up a fight... Hmm?"

_The dust cleared from in front of the Balrog, and to its eternal astonishment, there was no sign at all of James, or at the very least the liquefied remains that the archdemon's blow should have left. Out of nowhere it suddenly sensed a new presence appearing somewhere above and behind it, and it spun around to behold the supposedly dead crusader, apparently still very much alive and kicking, his Heaven's Gate grasped tightly in his hand._

_The archdemon's jaw nearly dropped open at the supposedly impossible feat; the human had been right in front of him when he had dealt the blow, and he had felt the insect's life force vanish beneath his might. The crusader couldn't possibly have survived that, much less avoided it!_

"You! How... how did you...!?" _For the first time in its long, long life, the Crimson Balrog was stunned into speechlessness, and apparently the crusader had no intention of giving any explanations._

_Up above the Crimson Balrog, James twisted around in mid-air, bringing his Heaven's Gate over his other shoulder and focusing upon his power from within. On his neck, the pendant that his mother used to own, and now the one he always wore, began to glow softly, the very same glow also surrounding the blade of his greatsword. _

_"Let's go."_

_Narrowing his eyes, the crusader locked his gaze with the Balrog's own baleful one, and undid the seal._

_"Sakibé, Zangetsu!__" [__Sakibé: __Shout, Zangetsu: Cutting Moon]  
_

_Slashing outwards with his now brightly-glowing Heaven's Gate, an overwhelming azure flash erupted from the tip of the sword's blade, and the Crimson Balrog was forced to cover its eyes lest it be blinded by the light. It felt something huge suddenly slash across its side, leaving a large gash in its wake, but it was nothing the demon could not endure. _

"Impossssible!" _The Balrog hissed to itself in disbelief. How could a warrior possibly possess a ranged attack!? Snarling, the demon thrust aside its arms, preparing another spell to hurl at the crusader, when it received a second shock for the night._

_The crusader was no longer holding a Heaven's Gate - instead, in his hand he grasped a giant cleaver-like blade that had no hilt _or_ guard. The entire blade was black with a silver edge, and if the Balrogs eyes weren't deceiving it, the sword itself was as long as the crusader was tall. A white cloth wrapped itself around the tang of the sword that served as the handle, and that was where the crusader was gripping onto the sword, with _one hand. _Such an immense blade was surely as heavy as it was large, and yet the crusader was wielding it as though it were light as a stick._

_The crusader himself was grinning at the Balrog confidently, as though he was completely sure of himself and his ability to win the fight, and he raised the giant cleaver over his head, his eyes hardening._

_Snarling, the Crimson Balrog readied another fireball in its claws. The demon's senses could already feel a massive increase of reiatsu suddenly emanating from the crusader, as though he was preparing a huge amount of mana to manipulate all at once - common sense dictated that he was obviously preparing for some sort of attack._

_A fact that was somewhat lost on the humans was that the magical force they termed as 'mana' was actually in fact their spiritual energy, or reiryoku. Most of the spells and skills they developed that utilized mana was in fact a form of reiryoku manipulation, a way of shaping their spiritual energy and either applying it onto a material object to boost its physical properties, or coalescing the reiryoku iteslf into a physical form such as a spell or a projectile, resulting in spiritual pressure that was otherwise known as reiatsu. Advanced users of reiatsu were able to project their presence by focusing and dispersing large amounts of their reiryoku into the air, intimidating their opponents and simultaneously hindering their movements through sheer force of presence and killing intent._

_All this was common knowledge to the Balrogs and their ilk, but it was an art that was long lost on the humans - the very fact that the crusader it faced now was in fact _very_ well-versed in these arts was astonishing. The Crimson Balrog knew that it was no pushover - it had paralyzed numerous adventurers before, even those stronger and higher-leveled than the crusader it faced now, with the sheer force of its own demonic reiatsu, and yet this one was effortlessly resisting its killing intent, and even countering with his own. This was definitely an opponent not to be underestimated._

_The crusader's grin widened, and suddenly the Crimson Balrog felt its opponent's reiatsu reach its peak. Growling, the demon fed even more mana into the black fireball in its hands, intensifying its power, and cocked it back in preparation to throw it at the crusader._

_"It's over." James declared, and brought the blade of his sword down._

_"**Getsuga Tenshou!**" [Getsuga Tenshou: Moon Fang Heaven-Piercer]  
_

_The same overwhelming flash that the Crimson Balrog had witnessed earlier erupted again from the tip of the cleaver's blade, and in response the demon hurled the fireball it clutched in its claws simultaneously, in an effort to counter the blow. As the two projectiles collided, there was a deafening explosion, and a flash of light even greater and more blinding than the one from crusader's sword flared to life between the two combatants._

_The resulting shockwave slammed into the Balrog like a brick wall, but the archdemon readily endured the impact, having taken far worse blows before. Unable to see through the dust the explosion had kicked up, the Balrog quickly cast its senses out to search for the crusader's presence. Once again, the insect's spiritual pressure had vanished, but after two surprises for tonight, the archdemon had quickly learnt to expect many surprises from this opponent. This crusader was unlike anything it had ever encountered before - underestimating him would obviously result in a lot of hurt._

_Out of nowhere, a black blade suddenly descended upon the Balrog's head from the obscuring screen of dust, and it raised swiftly raised up its left forearm to block, intensifying its reiatsu there to harden its skin. The blade descended upon its arm, but stopped short just there, not even cutting its skin or drawing any blood._

_The Balrog took great pleasure in watching the shocked expression on the crusader's face, and cackled heartily as it swiped at the warrior with its other arm. The blow drew blood as its claws connected, carving three deep gashes in the warrior's chest, and sent the crusader flipping backwards in a late attempt to dodge the blow._

"Have you forgotten, warrior? We Crimson Balrogs have iron skin that no sword can cut!" _The Crimson Balrog laughed in contempt. _"I can see from here that even with a sword like yours, I can still take you on bare-handed!"

_"Oh, is that so?" James replied cockily, and smoothly recovered his stance despite the three dripping wounds on his chest. "Why does that sound so familiar - maybe because _we_ warriors have the same skill? Ever heard of Iron Body, demon?"_

"Hmph! Cassst all the skills you want, warrior, the fact remains that you'll never beat me!"_ The Crimson Balrog roared, laughing, and lunged forward again, brandishing its claws as a black aura of reiatsu surrounded them._ _James retaliated with his own lunge, clashing blades with the Balrog's claws as the two sought to overpower one another. _

_The reiatsu surrounding James' own body suddenly intensified tenfold_ _as he threw a large amount of energy into casting Iron Body for a split second, and one of the Balrog's slashes was effortlessly deflected from his skin in a shower of sparks_, _leaving only a few shallow scratches in their wake._

_In retaliation the crusader swept forward with Zangetsu in a flurry of slashes and stabs, momentarily forcing the Balrog on the defensive, and soon he had the demon dodging and parrying madly with its forearms._

_The tide of the battle continued to shift back and forth for several minutes, with the two combatants occasionally landing glancing blows but never making any direct hits, always dodging and blocking madly as they took turns going on the offensive._

_James ducked under another swipe of the Balrog's claws, avoiding being gutted and having his entrails spill out onto the ground, and lunged forward with Zangetsu again, focusing his reiatsu onto the tip of his blade. At such a close range the Balrog wouldn't expect him to use that technique again, but the one thing the demon had underestimated about it was that it could be used at _any_ range - even point blank._

_Raising Zangetsu over his head and preparing to unleash the spiritual energy he had compressed into his blade, James prepared to deal the final blow._

_"Getsuga Ten-"_

_Three claws suddenly burst through his midsection, exiting from his back in a welter of blood, and James' mouth fell open in shock as the Balrog withdrew its hand from his abdomen, its claws coated in his blood._

_Blood spilling from his mouth, James could barely cry out in pain as he stumbled back, clutching at the wound. In front of him the Balrog was holding its bloodied claw triumphantly in front of him, cackling madly at its victory. Cursing, the crusader raised Zangetsu over his head again unsteadily, attempting to focus his reiatsu again. Damnit, how could he have let his guard down like that? He had taken a risk too, attempting to use Getsuga Tenshou at point blank range. His sword's ability took a considerable amount of time to charge up, and attacking too early had left him wide open to counterattack._

_Well, time to pay back for that mistake. Struggling to refocus his reiatsu, the familiar light-blue glow began to surround Zangetsu again, but it was much weaker this time, and James nearly doubled over from a sudden wave of vertigo. Coughing, the crusader nearly collapsed onto one knee as the impalement wound took its toll on him, his vision blurring and his knees shaking madly. The glow surrounding his blade faded dangerously, and the Crimson Balrog laughed in contempt at its defeated opponent._

_"_You picked a bad day to pick a fight with a Crimson Balrog, crusader." _The archdemon hissed gleefully, and it flexed its claws as another black fireball flared to life in its hand._ "It will be the last mistake you'll ever make!"

_Laughing, the Balrog drew its hand back in preparation to throw the fireball, and James' eyes widened in horror. Immediately, he raised Zangetsu horizontally in front of him while grabbing his right bicep with his left hand. He still had one more trick up his sleeve - it would probably leave him bedridden and horribly weakened for a week after this, using it in his current state, but from what he could see, there was no other choice. Either he pulled it out now, or he was dead._

_Focusing on the latent power within his blade and preparing to draw it out, James readied himself to shout the release command as the Balrog began to thrust its arm forward, when all of a sudden a familiar voice from behind the Balrog uttered the words that would save his life._

_"Bakudō no Rokujyuu Ichi: Rikujōkōrō!" [__Art of Binding #61: Six Rod Prison of Light]  
_

_Six thin, wide shafts of golden energy suddenly slammed themselves into the Balrog's midsection, locking it in position and stopping its arm cold in mid-throw, the black fireball fizzling out in its hands._

_"_What!?_" The Crimson Balrog suddenly hissed out in shock as it struggled furiously in an attempt to free itself from the binding spell. "_Impossible! A _Kidō _art!?"

_Twisting itself around to get a glimpse of its assailant, the Crimson Balrog wondered how many more surprises it would receive tonight when it finally caught sight of the spellcaster. Some distance behind him stood a priestess, and for all intents and purposes she looked completely normal, clad in typical mage robes and carrying a Dark Ritual - the only unsettling thing was that she had her left arm outstretched, with her index and middle fingers extended and pointed towards the Balrog in the signature stance for casting the _Six-Rod Prison of Light_ spell._

_ No human was even supposed to have knowledge of the Demon Arts, let alone be able to cast such a high level spell. Binding spell numbers went all the way up to 100, and casting anything above #50 required considerable skill that was beyond most humans._

_And yet this priestess had not only managed to cast a level 61 spell, she had done so having skipped the_ entire_ incantation for it. Casting a spell while skipping the incantation was a mark of an extremely skilled Kidō user, and only a handful of even the most powerful Balrogs were able to cast spells for Demon Arts while skipping their spells' incantations. Most Balrogs were incapable of feeling fear thanks to their bloated egos, but this particular one suddenly found itself very much doubting its chances of survival tonight._

_Tricia's eyes narrowed, and she swung her staff violently in the Balrog's direction. A barrage of Shining Ray spells slammed itself into the archdemon's broad back, and the Balrog roared in agony as the holy energies of the spells battered against its defenses, forcing it to the ground and sending it sprawling, where it lay unmoving._

_Gaping, James could only drop to one knee and let Zangetsu fall from his exhausted grip as Tricia ran towards him, her features furrowed in concern._

_"Damn it James, only you would try to take on a Crimson Balrog on your own without even calling for backup." The priestess said in reprimand, quickly helping the wounded crusader to his feet and sealing the bloody holes in his abdomen with a quick healing spell. "Are you all right?"_

_"I'll live," James grunted wryly as he allowed his girlfriend to tend to his wounds, and he winced gingerly as she prodded his recently-healed stomach lightly with the tip of her Dark Ritual._

_"You should have used the flare gun, I'd have been able to help you out. See, now you're all beaten up, if I hadn't come when I did you'd probably be bedridden for the next several weeks." Tricia told him severely as she gently checked the rest of his body for any other visible injuries and making sure that none of his bones were broken. Inwardly, James sighed. Yet again, his girlfriend was the one coming to pull his ass out of the fire when he decided it was a good time to bite off more than he could chew._

_Honestly, he didn't know how he could've survived for so long without her - emotional bonds aside, if Tricia wasn't there to patch him up every time he got his ass kicked, he wouldn't even be alive today; he'd probably have died in one of his foolhardy adventures when he tried to solo some beast that was much too strong for him. Even just now, she had saved him from temporarily crippling himself by stepping just in time, right before he used his final trump card.  
_

_"Well," Tricia announced, getting to her feet and halting her poking and prodding. "Considering the fact that you just took on a Crimson Balrog solo, you got off pretty lightly. Your joints took some knocking around but nothing's broken or dislocated. You had a moderate contusion in your left kidney and there was some internal bleeding, but I've healed those already. Now..."_

_Their eyes suddenly widened simultaneously as they felt a monstrous surge of reiatsu from where the Crimson Balrog's body was, and Tricia whirled around._

_"Trish, look out!" James shouted as he saw the Balrog, back on its feet, its back smoking, and more pissed off than ever, cock back its left arm, where it gripped a gigantic lance composed of purple energy, sizzling demonically._

"You... You _insectsss!"_ _The Balrog howled in rage, spittle flying from its mouth._ "I'll never forgive you for injuring me so! You _will_ pay for this! Hadō no Gojyuu Yon: Haien!" _[Art of Destruction #54: Abolishing Flame]_

_With a deafening roar, the archdemon thrust its arm forward, and the blast of indigo fire hurtled towards them, intent on reducing them to atoms._

_Immediately, Tricia's left arm shot up, tracing an intricate symbol in the air faster than James' eyes could follow, and she shouted, "____Bakudō no Hachijyuu Ichi: Danku!" [Art of Binding #81: Splitting Void]  
_

_A translucent barrier abruptly sprung up between them and the lance, and the spear of demonic flame slammed against the invisible wall, detonating in a tremendous explosion of energy, almost instantly shattering the barrier but sparing them from most of the blast. The strength of the shockwave was very much reduced in their direction, but it was still enough to blow their hair backwards as the wind roared in all directions._

_As the dust faded, James could see that Tricia had expended a lot of mana deflecting that attack - her breathing was heavy, and sweat had begun to bead on her forehead. Casting _Splitting Void_, a level 81 spell, while skipping the incantation - James was no Kido expert, but he knew that spells without incantations took up a lot more energy and were a lot more difficult to control properly, resulting in a drastically weakened spell. Tricia was no doubt exhausted by now.  
_

_Out of nowhere a crimson blade of energy slashed downward from the screen of dust still in front of them, and James grabbed Zangetsu and shot to his feet, screaming in horror._

_"Tricia!"_

_The priestess' eyes widened as the blade descended, and she barely managed to raise her Dark Ritual in front of her in time to deflect the blow._

_"Magic Guard!" She cried out, and the blade stopped short just a few inches from her staff, held in place by a thin, translucent barrier that was tinged bright blue. However the force of the blow shook her throughout her entire body, and her arms nearly buckled beneath the Balrog's strength. Beneath her rocks crumbled and were sent flying to the side as she was nearly pile-driven into the ground, but the priestess still stood tall, panting in exhaustion. Snarling, the Crimson Balrog raised the blade high again for another strike, but Tricia abruptly teleported out of reach, reappearing behind the Balrog and raising her staff in preparation to cast another Shining Ray spell._

"Useless!" _The Balrog hissed as it spun around and deflected aside the ray of holy energy with its blade effortlessly._ "You may have knowledge of our Demon Arts, human, but that still won't give you any chance of survival tonight! This valley is where you will die!"

_"Perhaps you've never heard of us, then. What rock have you been living under, unable to recognize the members of the Marauders guild? And I thought Balrogs were one of the most intelligent species of demons there was," Tricia shot back testily. "You of all monsters ought to know that the Marauders are one of the strongest guilds out there."  
_

"Bah!" _The archdemon spat in contempt. _"Save it, human! If I had to listen to the names and titles of every human I killed, I'd never hear the end of it!"

_A grin slowly spread itself across Tricia's face, and James recognized it. It was the kind of grin that she had whenever she was anticipating the springing of a surprise on someone - Tricia loved getting the drop on people, and she especially loved dropping surprises in the middle of a fight._

_"In that case," Tricia said slowly, her smile widening, "At the very least, you would do well to remember the name of my Soul Slayer. My friend over there - you already met his. His Soul Slayer's name is Zangetsu, and now I will show you mine. Just remember these names well - they are the names of your killers you will taking with you back to the Underworld!"_

_Tricia's grin faded completely, and she raised her Dark Ritual in front of her, holding it at chest level. _

"_Mai..." [Mai: Dance]  
_

_Turning her staff in a circle counter-clockwise, her staff's body turned pure white as the skull head on her staff's tip slowly faded, changing into the visage of a beautiful female. A long ribbon of the exact same, pure white, began to form on the bottom end of the staff, and James watched in awe as glittering flakes of snow, like hundreds of tiny, beautiful diamonds, began to softly fall from behind Tricia._

_"... Sode no Shirayuki!" [Sode no Shirayuki: Sleeve of White Snow]  
_

_Tricia finished with the tip of her staff pointed towards the ground, and the Balrog was staring at her with its eyes widened in disbelief. A Soul Slayer? How was it that this priestess could possess one as well, in addition to that crusader? Impossible!_

_ Before it could even ponder the answer to these questions, the priestess turned her staff again into a horizontal grip, and uttered, "Some no Mai..." [Some no Mai: First Dance]  
_

_Tensing, the Balrog prepared for an attack, when the priestess suddenly disappeared from sight. The Balrog bit back a gasp; that wasn't a teleport spell! All of sudden it felt the priestess' spiritual pressure reappear - this time, directly behind him.  
_

_"... Tsuki Shiro!" [Tsuki Shiro: White Moon]  
_

_The ground beneath the Balrog suddenly turned completely white, having been encased in snow and ice in a perfect circle. As the Balrog watched in horror, the ice that covered the ground slowly began to grow up its feet, slowly covering it in a glacial chill and numbing its legs._

_"_W-what in the hells is this!?" _The Balrog exclaimed in shock. As the ice slowly encroached upwards and eventually reached its waist, the demon immediately began to furiously beat its wings. A moment later the ice covering its legs shattered, and the Balrog took to the sky, turning around to regard the priestess that had nearly caught it off guard._

"Hahaha!!!" _The archdemon laughed in triumph_. "Tough luck, priestess! Have you forgotten? My kind's true battlefield is the sky! A spell that freezes the ground can't hit an airborne target, you fool!" _The Balrog continued laughing madly, completely unperturbed by the confident grin on Tricia's face._

_"Oh really?" Tricia replied, and snapped her fingers. "What a pity."_

_The frozen circle on the ground suddenly began glowing brightly, and before the Balrog could even react, a giant column of glittering ice erupted upwards from the circle, completely engulfing the Crimson Balrog and freezing it in place. Its expression one of confused shock as it was instantly frozen to death, becoming part of the ice that surrounded it._

_"Sode no Shirayuki doesn't simply freeze the ground," The priestess explained to her deceased opponent as the column slowly began to crack. "Everything within this circle, both earth and sky..."_

_With a final, gigantic crack, the column shattered completely, breaking the Crimson Balrog inside it into millions of shards along with itself, and Tricia turned around, flourishing her released staff._

_"... is within Sode no Shirayuki's frozen domain!"_

_

* * *

_

With a start, James' eyes snapped open, and he damn near shot to a sitting up position, his breathing heavy as he set a hand on his forehead.

_Ah... Another one of those flashback dreams. _He thought to himself, calming his breathing and settling back down onto his bed. He had been having those flashback dreams involving Tricia with increasing frequency every time he dozed off, ever since he had lost her to that demon Ergoth in the ruins of the Sharenian.

He wasn't a psychology expert like Ethan or a science whiz like Hiroshi - he didn't know what the increasing frequency of the dreams meant, but it probably stemmed from the fact that his waking thoughts were nearly consumed by the focus of rescuing her soul from Ergoth's clutches.

The crusader tossed and turned around in bed for several minutes, but found himself completely unable to sleep - not since the dream. His mind was still screaming at him to take action, and that every minute that passed was another minute where Tricia's soul remained in Ergoth's grip. He could barely get himself to even sit still.

Earlier on the airship ride to Zipangu he had had another one of those flashback dreams, one detailing when he and Tricia had taken the first step in forming their relationship, and even after that, the first night in which they had arrived in the Japanese town and checked into the nearest inn, the very moment James had laid his head down to sleep, he'd gotten another one of those dreams.

Unable to sleep, James sat up, sighing, and turned to his side, grabbing his Heaven's Gate where it lay leaning against his bedside table. On the other side of the room, Ethan lay snoozing on his own rented bed, undisturbed by James' sudden waking. They had checked into the inn for two days and one night, intending to use the first day to some reconnaissance work to get a feel of the lay of the land, and the second day to purchase supplies in order to prepare themselves for their confrontation with Black Crow.

Their first day had already passed with fruitful results - having never visited Zipangu before, the two third-jobbers now had a comprehensive map of the surrounding area, both of their targeted location and the adjacent locations as well. The monsters here were mostly well below their level, and they were able to ward off any sporadic attacks easily. The locals had told them that the monsters got far stronger during the night, but James and Ethan felt that it wasn't going to make much of a difference either way. After a long day of trekking around the forests surrounding the town, they had returned to the inn with their bodies weary and their feet sore.

Ethan had had no problem passing out the moment he hit his bed, but James had tossed and turned for at least half an hour, his natural insomnia made stronger by the fact that his mind was still racing, all his thoughts focused on how he should be taking _action_ right now, working to save Tricia, not resting. Eventually he had fallen into a fitful slumber, and had experienced his most recent flashback dream - the one where Tricia had saved his ass once again.

Sighing, James grabbed a rag from his bedside table, as well as a small bottle of cleaning oil, and set about polishing the blade of his Heaven's Gate. Ethan lay unmoving on his own bed across the room, the only sign of his breathing being the slight rising and falling of his chest, and overall the silence in the room was so heavy that a pin dropping would have sounded as loud as a riot going on outside.

On Ethan's bedside table the lore tome that Hiroshi had provided them with lay unopened, along with the filed report detailing Black Crow's battle data, but James had practically memorized the entire thing.

_The legend of the Black Crow. Formerly a master swordsman, and an emperor of Zipangu back in its olden days, the emperor known as Sutoku had been force by his father to abandon the throne. Some years after his deposement, he raised a rebellion in an attempt to seize back his throne, one known as the Hōgen Rebellion._

_However, he was defeated by the reigning emperor Go-Shirakawa in single combat, and in punishment he was exiled to the Sanuki Province in Shikoku of Zipangu. According to the legend he had died in torment in the forests of Sanuki, having come across a giant, golden statue depicting the Buddha in his final moments before succumbing to his death._

_Wounded and dying, the deposed emperor had begged the deity for a chance at revenge, one last opportunity to drag his enemies down with him so he wouldn't go to hell alone. As he slipped into the realm between the world of the living and the dead, the statue glowed with divine power, and as the hour struck midnight, a fallen deity was born._

_The very next night, the entire royal court of Go-Shirakawa's regime was found murdered in their sleep, having their throats slashed out and their bodies disemboweled. The corpse of Emperor __Go-Shirakawa himself was found hanging headless, suspended supernaturally over his throne by unseen forces as his detached cranium lay in a growing pool of blood in the centre of the royal court room. _

_His vengeance fulfilled, Sutoku had attempted to end his own life there and then, only to realize to his horror that he could not commit suicide - the divine power that had resurrected him had also left him immortal, unable to die by his own hand - the only way he could die was if he was slain in battle, by the hand of another._

_His power and immortality now a curse instead of a blessing, Sutoku travelled back to the forest to which he had been exiled, back to the statue that had given him this power._

_Swearing that very night to haunt the nation of Zipangu as a great demon with his newfound power, until someone strong enough arose to slay him, Sutoku cast aside his mortal name and adopted a new mantle - the "Black Crow", a fearsome _Tengu _with long nails and eyes like a kite's._

_From that night onwards, Sutoku was, for all intents and purposes, dead, and the Black Crow was born. For centuries he has haunted the statue in the forests of Sanuki, battling any warrior who sought to challenge him, always giving his all in battle, in the hopes that one day, his killer would arrive, and he would finally be able to depart in peace._

The legend was fanciful enough, and like almost all the legends pertaining to the rare beasts they encountered in Bera, told a moving story, this one teaching the poison of revenge, and the double-bladed sword that immortality could become. James thought the story dramatic enough, but it was Hiroshi's report detailing Black Crow's battle data that concerned him more.

It was obvious from the legend's contents that Black Crow was a master swordsman, and after transforming into a _Tengu_, he had gained powerful magical abilities as well. Hiroshi's report detailed all of Black Crow's known abilities, including a long, regal blade made completely out of gold that he wielded with the finesse of an artist, the ability to summon ethereal swords to spear his enemies, and a single wing from his right shoulder that provided him with a flight capability, that he used to flit across the battlefield in short bursts with the agility of a raptor.

Hiroshi wasn't without the means to counter those abilities, however. The Outlaw's gadgets were all created with the intention of making life easier for them, and the one he had provided James with was no difference. In response to Black Crow's capabilities, Hiroshi had provided James with a gauntlet called the Devil Buster to be worn on his right arm, capable of projecting telekinetic force over short distances and allowing him to snatch his enemies from afar, as well as grapple them for a devastating throw.

The gauntlet currently lay in James' pack, unactivated, but if he were to wear it now it would extend all the way up to his elbow, and when activated the centre of its palm would glow with a soft inner light, as veins of light extended all around the gauntlet. Hiroshi never said what artifacts he had used to make the gauntlet, and James wasn't about to ask.

That was pretty much all that Hiroshi's report covered, but it was all James needed to know. He was great at adapting to different opponents on the fly anyway, but it was good to head into the battlefield with a rough idea of what you were about to face.

The next several moments continued in relative silence, as James continued cleaning his Heaven's Gate while Ethan continued sleeping like a log, but the peace was soon shattered as suddenly as a stone causing a ripple in a pond.

Without warning, visions and voices suddenly assailed his subconscious relentlessly, ripping and tearing at his senses as he was rendered catatonic for a split moment. James' mind suddenly exploded into a psychedelic tsunami of wildly conflicting images; chaotic, divergent thoughts, and profound, intense emotions.

Staggering, the crusader convulsed uncontrollably as he toppled off his bed, knocking over an elixir bottle that was lying on his bedside table and sending it crashing to the floor.

He lay in a hallucinogenic fugue for a several seconds, but within his hyperactive brain, the passage of real time meant nothing. Bombarded by images, assaulted by sounds, James could only lay still in silent agony, unable to absorb or comprehend the kaleidoscopic panorama. Each vision flitted past his vision with but a flicker, and though he glimpsed each for only a split second, he was able to grasp their entirety flawlessly.

_A giant city, burning in flames..._

_**Do not be afraid... I am peace... I am salvation...**_

_A young man receiving his first katana, a joy overcoming the youth as he finally graduated from the Shinigami Academy..._

_**You have been called upon to serve...**_

_The very same young man, now older, stronger, fitter, wielded his katana's true form, a staff that commanded the very powers of light at his whim, against countless demons that sought to devour innocents..._

_**You will be the protectors of the Sharenian Empire and all her cities...**_

_Again, the very same man, now aged and greying, holding his staff, poring over forbidden books of necromancy..._

___**I have defied Gods, and demons...**_

___The very same man, now confronted by dozens of his former cohorts, all clad in black robes similar to his. Some wielded swords, some carried bows, others bore wands and staffs, but all were focused upon him with the same intent: his eradication._

___**I am your shield... I am your sword...**_

___The very same man. Surrounded by the corpses of his former comrades. His staff, once surrounded by a divine, golden aura, now instead harbored a festering, infernal glow, black as the deepest, darkest depths of hell. His skin, now white as a corpse's, and his hair, wild and unkempt; every sign screamed of corruption. _

_**Time has taught me ****patience**! But basking in new freedom, __I will know all that I **possess**_!

___As the man raised his staff and traced an intricate symbol in the air, the infernal glow of his staff spread to the ground beneath him, extending outwards and consuming the corpses of his former colleagues, grasping tendrils dragging them down into the darkness, and their eternal damnation. As the corpses sank into the ground, the infernal glow surrounding the man intensified with a sickly purple, and a sadistic grin spread over his face._

_****__I know you... Your past... Your future...  
_

_As the man slowly faded away, his features shifted, his hair growing longer and morphing into a lustrous black. His features slowly became more feminine, his growing hair reaching down his back, and as the blackness slowly consumed him, a familiar smile graced the now-female face of the mage._

_****__This..._ is the way the world ends...

Snapping back to consciousness, James' eyes shot open, his chest heaving as he gasped for air. Completely unaware of his surroundings for a moment, James could not feel anything aside from a terrible pounding in his head, and he groaned loudly, shutting his eyes and putting a hand to his forehead in an attempt to shut out the pain. Slowly, he creaked open his eyes, and found Ethan's visage hovering concernedly within his field of vision; the ranger looked very disturbed.

"What is it, Ethan?" James groaned, attempting to sit up from his unglamorous position of having fallen to the floor while his legs were still up on the bed. "You look like you've just seen a ghost."

"I damn near did." The ranger said breathlessly, and pointed at the crusader. "I checked on you the moment you started convulsing on the floor, and for a few moments, your pulse had been completely gone."

The crusader stared at Ethan for several unbelieving moments, unable to comprehend what he had just heard. His pulse had been... completely gone?

"Are you saying..." James said slowly. "That I was clinically dead for several moments?"

"Technically, yes," Ethan confirmed for him. "James, you mind telling me what that was all about? You damn near gave me a heart attack when you started convulsing on the floor like that."

Sighing, James covered his face with a hand. "Even I don't know what the hell just hit me, Ethan. It was some kind of vision, voices ripping through my head. If Hiroshi were here he'd definitely call it a psychic attack of some sort."

"Visions and voices? Sounds more to me like you've got a couple of screws loose up in there, mate." The ranger muttered, and gave thumped the crusader on his shoulder before hauling him back up onto his bed. "It was probably a nightmare, and you're probably exhausted from the lack of sleep; you were up cleaning your damned Heaven's Gate when any sane soul would be sleeping. You really wanna save Tricia that badly, huh? Then get some rest, you won't be able to do her much good if you fall asleep in the middle of a fight."

As Ethan strode back to his bed and got back under his covers, James turned to stare at his Heaven's Gate, lying on the floor along with the rag he had been using to clean it. Though he would have never admitted it to even himself, that very last vision had scared him.

It was plain enough that the act being carried out in it was _evil_ in its basest form, plain and simple, but the sheer malice and malevolence he felt from that man... it was obvious that at that moment, he was far more than just a man.

If his assumptions were right, he was looking at Ergoth, pre-demonic transformation. James didn't know how that was supposed to make sense, as Ergoth was supposed to have been a demon from the very beginning, but somehow he knew that his gut feeling was just right.

And that woman he had transformed into before the blackness had consumed him... that was what scared him the most, causing a trepidation and terror unlike anything he had experienced before to grip at his heart, clawing at the back of his head.

That smile the woman had given... _it was Tricia's smile_.

* * *

The rest of the night passed fitfully as James struggled to get some sleep, but the fear that if he closed his eyes, he would be assailed by the dreams again kept him wide awake. When Ethan woke up the next morning, he found James lying down blearily on his bed, his eyes looking very much like a panda's as the crusader's pronounced eyebags made him look very much like the bear.

A simple cup of coffee was enough to perk Ethan up for the rest of the day, but James needed the entire pot to compensate for his lack of sleep. The two left the inn in the late morning, travelling to Showa Town, fighting off sporadic attacks from Showa's resident gang member-wannabes along the way, and spending the entire afternoon there at the markets bargaining for better prices as they purchased potions, food and supplies to last them through their journey through the forest in their search for Black Crow.

It had been pretty trying to get good bargains for the supplies they sought. There was one seedy shop owner that had tried to rip them off by charging them twice the normal price of a bunch of power elixirs, saying that they were high in demand but low in supply, hence the higher price, and Ethan had had to hold back James from charging the shop owner as they left without buying anything.

As the afternoon passed, and night fell, they departed from Zipangu, weapons ready on their backs and their packs filled with syrettes, hypos and other supplies. Hiroshi had developed a means of distilling and concentrating the contents of potions and pills, and placing that concentrated solution into an easily transportable syrette that made for _very_ easy insertion of the former potion's/pill's contents into their body, essentially doubling their effect and reducing the time it took to take effect by half.

James and Ethan had spent the entire evening transferring their purchased potions into the syrettes they had brought with them, courtesy of a machine that Hiroshi had developed to simplify the process for those who didn't understand it, and now their packs were full of three shockproof cases, one full of health hypos, another filled with mana hypos, and the third containing more valuable and potent elixir hypos.

Journeying through the forest, they effortlessly fought their way through the throngs of Lantern Ghosts, Samihoes and Water Goblins that sought to block their path, not even needing to release their weapons. James, having put on the Devil Buster earlier, grappled the last surviving Water Goblin from the latest attack with a telekinetic uppercut and, with an mighty shout, literally pounded the green monster into oblivion as he slam-dunked it headlong into the ground with all his might.

The goblin died instantly as its head as instantly pulverized by the massive impact, and the rest of its limp body crashed to the floor a second later.

Behind him, Ethan used the knockback capabilities of his Dark Arund to shove a Samiho into the ground, and, planting his foot against the kitsune's neck, sent a Strafe attack through its head at point blank range. The quartet of arrows shot right through the Samiho's head without so much of any resistance, blowing a neat row of four holes in between its eyes. The Kitsune died without a sound, and the two adventurers continued journeying through the forest, leaving behind a field littered with the remains of dozens of Water Goblins and Samihoes.

* * *

It was five minutes to midnight when they finally reached the clearing they sought - it was impossible to miss the statue in it. Surrounded by bamboo shoots, with Dreamy Ghosts fluttering all around its base, the giant golden statue was a majestic sight to behold. Even Ethan's breath was taken away as he beheld the gargantuan effigy, bathed in a glorious glow the very same color of its body.

"Wow... That must be a _lot_ of gold right there." James whispered as they quickly settled into the underbrush, hiding themselves from the Dreamy Ghosts and suppressing their reiatsu so that the female spirits would not notice their presence.

"Don't tell me you're thinking of dragging the entire statue out of here, James," Ethan said wryly as he spied a nearby tree that had branches thick enough for him to stand upon, and a crown of leaves thick enough for to conceal himself in. With a blink, Ethan suddenly disappeared from sight with a swishing sound, and James did the same in the blink of an eye. A split-second later, they reappeared on said branch, legs braced against it and holding themselves secure. "I know how money-minded you can be at times. Besides, wouldn't it be like religious sacrilege or something if we removed this statue from its resting place?"

"Tch," James scoffed, and shifted himself to a branch next to Ethan so the one he was standing on wouldn't have to stand their combined weight. "I wouldn't be so insensitive or dumb enough to think of that. But damn, man... that must be a _lot_ of gold that went into making that statue."

Sighing, the ranger focused on keeping his reiatsu suppressed, and settled down onto the branch, watching the statue and the flock of floating Dreamy Ghosts of any sign of the Black Crow. His wristwatch read _"23:58:47"_ - it was nearly midnight. Black Crow _had_ to be appearing soon.

Slowly, the seconds ticked by, and Ethan's tension grew as the Dreamy Ghosts slowly began to sing. It was a haunting, chilling melody, one that sent shivers down Ethan's spine, and chilled him to the bone. This was a song of mourning, and a song of mourning being sung by _ghosts_ of all beings... That was more than creepy enough to give the ranger's goosebumps goosebumps of their own.

Taking his eyes off the serenading spirits, Ethan took a glance at the crusader next to him, and saw that James' irises had turned a bloody red, and two comma-shaped secondary pupils were now encircling his central, main pupil.

_Ah, great. _Ethan thought to himself. _Impatient bastard activated his Sharingan early again. _

Not that it made much of a difference to him. What James did in his part of the fight was his own business; if he wanted to play one of his trump cards so early, it was his problem. Ethan took his gaze off the crusader, and glanced at his watch; the time read _"23:59:57"_.

If Black Crow didn't appear within the next three seconds, this whole trip was a bust. Ethan was so wound up that he could barely breath, and if he looked to the side he could see the muscles in James' neck tensing visibly, his now-altered eyes unblinking. Apparently, the crusader was burning up with anticipation as well.

_"23:59:58"_

Silently, the ranger reached a hand over his back, and set his palm upon his Dark Arund, his tensed muscles coiling like springs, ready to leap into action. Far above his head, he was dimly aware of the moon slowly climbing higher into the sky, its pale illumination growing brighter by the second._  
_

_"23:59:59"_

To his right he could feel James doing the same, his reiatsu flickering ever so slightly, but not enough for any of the ghosts to sense it. This was the moment of truth, the second that would either make or break them._  
_

_"00:00:00"_

The moon reached its very peak in the sky, its rays bestowed upon the golden statue of the Buddha like some sort of heavenly blessing, and before any of them could react, there was a blinding flash of golden light from the statue.

Ethan was barely able to bite back a shocked cry, and he damn near toppled off the branch he was holding on to. Only a last-second shift of balance kept him on his perch, his death-grip on the branch keeping him from falling off. Blinking the spots out of his eyes, he glanced to his right, and saw that James' eyes were tightly shut - damnit, the crusader had seen the surprise coming with his Sharingan, and had closed his eyes in time to prevent himself from getting temporarily blinded.

Turning back to the statue, Ethan started scanning the hordes of Dreamy Ghosts for any sign of red - the pictures in the lore tome Hiroshi had proved them with detailed Black Crow as a human-sized deity with completely red skin and shocking mane of silver-white hair, though his most prominent feature was his over-large, protruding nose. It was going to be impossible to miss him.

The duo stayed motionless where they were, James scanning the horde with his Sharingan while Ethan finally relented to activating his Byakugan, doing the same. The veins around the ranger's temples bulged as his irises and pupil turned a featureless, milky white, though his pupil still remained more pronounced than the rest of his eye.

It didn't take long for James to spot Black Crow - right at the top of the statue's head, surrounded by a flock of Dreamy Ghosts that nearly completely blocked him from sight. If it hadn't been for his Sharingan, James probably wouldn't have been able to spot the flash of gold from Black Crow's golden blade that gave away his position at all.

One of the Sharingan's abilities was granting its user incredible clarity of perception, allowing him to pick up on even the most subtle details such as lip or pencil movements, and copy those movements with unnerving precision. With such a level of perception, seeing and perceiving incoming attacks was almost child's play.

As the Sharingan evolved, gaining more tomoe seals around the user's main pupils, this ability would extend to being able to track even the fastest-moving objects, before finally giving some amount of predictive capabilities to the user.

However, one weakness of the Sharingan's clarity of perception was that even though the user may be able to see an attack or know it is coming, if their bodies were unable to keep up with the speed of the attack, they would not be able to react in time to counter or dodge, simply dragging out their defeat and making it even slower. Fortunately for James, he was swift enough to keep up with many of his opponents' speed, and save for that botched encounter with Ergoth, his Sharingan had yet to fail him.

Currently, James' Sharingan had not fully matured yet, and had only two tomoe seals surrounding his each of his pupils, just one tomoe away from being a fully matured Sharingan. James never knew where he had gotten this ability from, save that when his parents had died in that monster attack on his home town of Perion when he was only 11 years old, his Sharingan had made its first appearance, granting him the ability to pick up even his father's sword, and slay the monsters that had murdered them with preternatural speed and accuracy.

He didn't know if his parents had possessed the Sharingan as well, but nobody else he knew of in this world had the eyes that he did - it was pretty much the same case for Ethan. Neither of Ethan's parents possessed the Byakugan, and nobody else they knew of had demonstrated the capability of using it either.

It was a mystery they had never bothered to investigate, as they figured it was a good idea not to look a gift horse in the mouth. As James caught sight of Black Crow, he turned slightly towards Ethan and nudged the ranger lightly.

"Yeah, I see him," Ethan acknowledged, his own Byakugan focused on the exact spot where Black Crow supposedly stood. Unlike the Sharingan, which allowed its user to perceive anything within his field of vision with extreme clarity, the Byakugan instead _expanded_ the user's field of vision, granting him a near 360º field of vision - the only exception was one blind spot at the back of the neck, above the third thoracic vertebra. It also granted them the ability to see through solid objects, and a certain degree of telescopic sight.

When Ethan had first used his Byakugan, back when he was but a mere Hunter, his visual range had extended all the way up to 50 meters. Now a ranger, his eyes could spot anything within a range of a whopping 800 metres - practically nothing escaped his gaze when his Byakugan was activated.

"I sense a trap." James declared grimly, and palmed the handle of his Heaven's Gate. Next to him, Ethan smiled wryly, knowing what the crusader would have in mind next.

"Next move?" The ranger asked, already knowing what James' answer was going to be.

The crusader's mouth broke out into a wide, confident grin. "Spring the trap."

The duo tensed simultaneously, preparing to spring from their hiding place and turn their enemies' trap into an ambush of their own, when suddenly the hackles on the back of James' neck rose.

_Ah hell, not again._ He thought to dryly himself a split second before the voices and visions ripped through his head once more. This time they came in an overlapping barrage so fast, so unrelenting, that James was unable to comprehend any of it at all. Crying out in pain, the crusader clutched at his head, and consequentially, completely lost his grip on his perch. James toppled from the branch, and landed with a resounding crash into the underbrush below, prompting every single head within a five hundred metre radius to turn their eyes on him.

_God damn you, James, you klutz_. Ethan thought exasperatedly to himself as Black Crow gave an engraged roar, and pointed his golden blade in their direction. Screeching like a flight of banshees, the entire entourage of Dreamy Ghosts began streaking in their direction, baying for their blood.

Swearing up a storm, Ethan braced himself against the branch as he withdrew his Dark Arund from its holster and strung an arrow in. Pointing his bow at the sky, he fired off a quick Arrow Rain in an effort to keep the horde at bay, even if for only a few seconds, and abruptly disappeared from his branch, reappearing at James' side a second later.

The shock and surprise of the sudden Arrow Rain, coupled with the abrupt teleportation of one of their prey, halted the Dreamy Ghosts' charge, even if for only a few seconds. Scores of them died as the Arrow Rain struck, but for each Dreamy Ghost that died, there were dozens more to take their place. However, a few seconds was all Ethan needed to haul the dazed crusader to his feet, and quickly inject him with a health syrette.

The sudden boost of stimulant snapped James out of his hallucinogenic stupor, and he turned to Ethan, his eyes wide and alert.

"You go after Black Crow, James! You're more suited to single combat than I am. I'll take care of the Dreamy Ghosts!" Ethan ordered the crusader before suddenly disappearing from sight again, reappearing a split-second later in the very midst of the horde, firing off blazing volleys of arrows left and right.

Having served as his voice of reason and tactics in the face of battle for years, James knew better than to not follow the ranger's advice. Swiftly unsheathing his Heaven's Gate, James unleashed a savage warcry as he ploughed through the crowds of Dreamy Ghosts. Throngs of them descended upon him at once, but their attacks were either dodged or blocked with the Heaven's Gate's hefty blade.

The Devil Buster gauntlet left him unable to grip his sword in his right arm, and he was forced to wield his Heaven's Gate in his left - good thing he was ambidextrous.

Slashing left and right, he eviscerated the Dreamy Ghost in front of him, and even as that one fell, he raised his Heaven's Gate over his opposite shoulder, and slammed it down in a hammer blow that cleaved the second Dreamy Ghost behind his first victim in half. The next nearest ghost was some distance away to his left, and he immediately thrust the Devil Buster in its direction.

A giant, flaming spectral arm wreathed in blue fire shot forth from the gauntlet, and snatched at the Dreamy Ghost before it could even react. James drew his arm backwards swiftly, and in the blink of an eye, the spectral arm retracted back into the gauntlet, and suddenly the Dreamy Ghost was right in front of James, where it was promptly shredded to pieces by the crusader's blade. James continued the massacre of the Dreamy Ghosts surrounding him until, before long, he had attracted the Black Crow's personal attention.

Suddenly, all the Dreamy Ghosts pulled back from attacking him, and instead started drifting in Ethan's direction.

"Wait a minute, get back here!" James shouted in defiance, attempting to prevent his friend from having to take on the entire horde by himself, when a keening cry suddenly caught his attention. Glancing to his right, he saw Black Crow staring right at him with those kite-like eyes, the long-clawed fingers of his right hand grasping the handle of his golden sword tightly. The Japanese deity had his blade pointed directly at James, and the look in his eyes was clear - he was challenging James to a duel to the death, in single combat.

_Oh yeah? _The crusader thought to himself defiantly as a single wing burst out from the Tengu's right shoulder, and the fallen deity streaked straight towards him with blinding speed. _He wants a fight? He'll get one!_

"Shout, Zangetsu!" James cried out, unsealing his Soul Slayer in response, and he met the Tengu's charge head-on in a roaring clash of blades. The shockwave of their clash tossed up leaves for yards around them, and sent a sizeable gust flying outwards from where they stood, swords locked against each other in a battle of strength and wills.

"Feeling a faint motion of reiatsu deep within the forest, I had wondered what manner of powerful warrior was hiding his reiatsu to slip inside here, but it was merely a gnat." The Tengu snarled in James' face in a serpentine voice, pushing against Zangetsu's blade with a monstrous might that James struggled to match. "The gods must truly be mocking me now, if they send a mere _boy_ to fight me!"

A vein in James' temple bulged in irritation, and the crusader's eyebrow twitched. His 23rd birthday was a mere months away, and technically he was already a legal adult. The fact that many people had remarked he looked three years younger than he actually was, giving him the appearance of a youthful teenager despite his age, did not help at all, and anybody calling him a 'boy' was very irksome to the crusader.

"You'll wanna watch your mouth, spirit." James spat back with equal venom, shoving back with Zangetsu with a grunt. "Cos you're gonna be blushing a pretty pink when this 'boy' kicks your ass!"

Zangetsu's blade suddenly started glowing an intense blue-white, and at point-blank range, James shouted, "Getsuga Tenshou!"

There was an enormous explosion of energy from where they stood, and both combatants emerged from opposite sides of the dust cloud that had been kicked up, leaping backwards from each other. As they both landed impeccably on their feet, Black Crow gave James a penetrating stare, one full of questions.

"What was that light that came from your sword, warrior?" The red-skinned Tengu asked, eyeing the crusader warily. "Is that a special ability of some sort for that blade? In all my years of fighting, I have never seen anything like it."

"Yeah," James grinned. "You must be wondering how it works. Putting it simply, I focus all of my spiritual pressure into Zangetsu's blade, and then release it again at the very same time that I swing my blade, throwing out an amplified blast of spiritual energy at my target. _This_... is Zangetsu's true power."

Black Crow's gaze went down to the large crater that had been blasted in the spot where they had first clashed blades, and he looked back up at the crusader, locking his penetrating gaze with James' own confident stare.

"My old mentor once told me," James admitted, "Knowing the name and not knowing the name of an attack that you unleash, it makes a vast difference in the power released. And the name of this technique..."

Flourishing his Soul Slayer, James reversed his grip on it, and plunged it bladefirst into the ground next to him.

"Is _'Getsuga Tenshou'._"

"Hmph." Black Crow huffed, and hefted his blade, bringing it up in a ready stance. "'Piercer of Heaven'... What a pretentious name. Do not speak out of your league, boy. It is a thousand years too early for you to die by my true power. But since you are so insistent, I'll indulge you with a little taste of it."

The Tengu's single wing flared outwards, and James barely had time to retrieve Zangetsu from the ground in time to parry Black Crow's thrust. The deity's blade was sent flying wide, and James desperately swung Zangetsu at the Tengu in a counterattack. Recovering flawlessly, Black Crow returned his blade to a ready position before James' blade was even halfway to meeting its mark, and effortlessly deflected the strike.

James quickly followed up his first strike with a combo, slicing and thrusting with all the speed he could muster, but Black Crow sent all his attacks sliding harmlessly to the side with last-second parries and subtle deflections. Snarling in frustration, James brought Zangetsu down over his head in a hammer blow meant to crash through Black Crow's defenses, but the deity slipped away at the last second, backflipping to a safe distance as Zangetsu's blade instead crashed into the ground in front of him, carving a large furrow where the blade met the soil.

"Why do you not use your right arm, warrior?" The Tengu asked as it leapt forward again, slashing and thrusting in a flurry of its own, forcing James on the defensive. "You fight as though you are not used fencing with your left hand. What is that gauntlet you wear?"

"None. Of. Your. Business!" James ground out in between each block and parry, ending his sentence simultaneous with a vicious counter-strike that had been meant to throw Black Crow's offensive off-balance, but the Japanese deity suddenly pulled back from his attack at the last second, avoiding the slash that had been meant to slice his chest open.

What Black Crow hadn't seen coming though, was James' sudden resort to hand-to-hand combat. In the wake of his missed strike, the crusader had actually sprinted forward and, lunging straight at the Tengu, thrust the Devil Buster upwards in a telekinetic uppercut.

Blue fire raced upwards Black Crow's body in a single flash, and before the Tengu knew it he was in the air, James holding him high with the Devil Buster.

He knew he had only a second before he was plunged headfirst into the ground. Black Crow immediately surged his reiatsu, his wing flaring outwards as he unleashed a brief burst of spiritual pressure just strong enough for him to break free from James' telekinetic grip.

Smoothly backflipping back onto his feet as James staggered backwards from the sudden breakage of his grip, Black Crow counterattacked immediately, but the crusader was very swift to recover. In the blink of an eye, the duo had clashed blades four times, far faster than any human could possibly hope to follow, each of Black Crow's strikes somehow being perfectly mirrored by James.

The Tengu's final blow crashed downwards from above, and Zangetsu was there to meet it in a horizontal parry, stopping the blade cold with the solidness of a rock wall despite the fact that James was using only one hand.

"That all you got?" James smirked cockily as Black Crow snarled and intensified the power of his blows, but the crusader was more than prepared for it.

"Not so fast!" With a sudden, monstrous surge of strength, James shoved Zangetsu forward with unbelievable power, actually shoving Black Crow's blade far to the side, leaving him wide open to attack. Three quick slashes left wounds wide open on the Tengu's skin, but those closed up almost instantaneously, leaving no outward trace of injury.

Cursing, the crusader stabbed Zangetsu forward with phenomonal speed, his Soul Slayer's blade singing as it cut through the air. The blow had been meant to take Black Crow's head from his shoulders, but all of a sudden the stab failed to connect, and suddenly Black Crow had his bare hand grabbing on to Zangetsu's tip, yanking James towards him. Before the crusader could even react, the Tengu had delivered a crushing upwards punch to his bicep, and there was a sickening _pop!_, as James' entire left arm was violently dislocated from its shoulder socket.

Crying out in pain, James stumbled backwards for the briefest of moments, but with a grunt he quickly set the shoulder back in, relocating it far faster than Black Crow expected, and all of a sudden he was charging forward again, slamming both of his boots simultaneously into the deity's face in a completely unexpected dropkick before the Tengu could even register what was happening.

It was like getting smashed in the face with a ton of bricks. The sheer strength of the blow actually knocked Black Crow silly and sent the Tengu flying, up into the air and towards the golden Buddha statue. The recoil of his blow sent James hurtling towards the ground again, but the crusader flipped himself around at the last moment, landing and skidding on one knee, and in a flash he had Zangetsu leveled and aimed at the airborne Tengu.

"Getsuga Tenshou!" The crusader shouted, and a crescent-shaped blast of blue-white spiritual energy exploded forth from the tip of his blade, hurtling straight towards Black Crow.

Somehow, James had _no_ idea how, Black Crow managed to do a sudden twist around in mid-air, bringing his golden blade into the path of the path of his Getsuga, and instead of cleaving the Japanese deity in half, the blast of reiryoku instead exploded harmlessly against the Tengu's golden blade, renewing its flight as it was sent hurtling towards the head of the Buddha statue.

Flipping around in mid-air, Black Crow managed to enact a smooth landing upon the statue's head, landing with its legs braced as it plunged its blade into the statue's forehead for support. A vicious warcry prompted Black Crow to look up, and the Tengu's jaw nearly dropped open at the sight of the crusader, shouting a battle oath, hurtling straight _towards_ him, having jumped an ungodly height to reach him at the top of the statue.

The Japanese deity had no time to ponder how the hell a mere human was even capable of leaping up to such a height. The deity's arm flexed mightily as he pulled his sword forth from the statue, in an attempt to meet the crusader's flying charge. However before he could do so, James' foot suddenly slammed straight into the pommel of his sword's handle, burying the entire length of the blade into the statue's forehead, and left only its hilt protruding.

A split-second reaction barely allowed Black Crow to avoid being eviscerated by Zangetsu's giant blade, the swing only leaving a shallow scratch on his chest. Mutually airborne for the briefest of moments, both combatants landed on opposing arms of the statue, weapons leveled at each other's throats - Black Crow had one of his summoned katana swords grasped in his hand and held inches from James' carotid artery, and the crusader stood in a position exactly mirroring that of the Tengu's, Zangetsu's blade poised inches away from Black Crow's larynx.

The two stood motionless where they were, locked in a classic Mexican standoff, neither of them budging an inch. This close to his adversary, Black Crow could see the crusader's eyes clearly for the first time, and what he saw gave him the very first shock of disbelief he had experienced in over a century.

_This boy... First his sword, and now his eyes. _The Tengu thought to himself, gazing into the blood-red irises of his foe, and regarding the two tomoes encircling each of the crusader's pupils. _There's no mistaking those eyes... This boy possesses the Sharingan, the mark of the Uchiha clan's chosen! But how is that possible, the Uchihas died out centuries ago!_

_Have the gods truly sent me a worthy opponent at last?_

The crusader's mouth curved upwards in a confident grin, and Black Crow at last found inner peace within himself for the first time since he had been entombed within this cursed, immortal body. _Yes... Could he be the one to finally finish me?_

* * *

It had been relatively simple at first, keeping the Dreamy Ghosts at bay. When they had first descended upon him, surrounding him from all directions, Ethan had closed his eyes, his Byakugan's vision unhindered by his eyelids. Closing all senses but his sight to the outside world, Ethan fell into what most would have called a meditative trance, except that this trance far from meditative.

This trance magnified his Byakugan's telescopic vision until he could see the microscopic, and hitting pin-prick sized targets became child's play to him. It also made hitting those pin-prick sized targets damn near instinctual, until his body could go through the entire routine almost automatically.

"_Hakke... Sanjyuu Ni Shō!" [Eight Trigrams, Thirty-two Palms]  
_

Using Strafe to send two arrows each through their chain link and soul sleep simultaneously, depriving them of their spirit powers and ultimately causing them to fade from the material plane, Ethan blurred from place to place faster than the eye could follow, unleashing Strafe attacks with blinding speed. Before long, thirty-two empty Dreamy Ghost kimonos lay empty on the ground around him, each flawlessly executed with one Strafe each.

It had worked flawlessly - at least, for the first five minutes. All of the sudden the Dreamy Ghosts, completely disorganized with no leadership, suddenly started making planned, coordinated attacks on him. Ethan recognized the brain behind an attack when they started attempting to distract him with a frontal attack, and then proceeding to flank him as the frontal diversion took effect.

Ethan barely managed to get out of that one without a scratch by suddenly blinking out of the way with what appeared to be a teleportation technique. His sudden disappearance shocked the Dreamy Ghosts enough that they had simply floated there, stunned, and putting arrows through their chain links and soul sleeps successively with another use of his Thirty-two palms technique was like shooting drunks in a barrel.

Slowly, the Dreamy Ghosts' attacks became more coordinated, more organized, that Ethan was soon forced to acknowledge the presence of some sort of leadership at work here, and it definitely couldn't be Black Crow - the Tengu was still busy fighting James, and definitely couldn't spare any thought to directing his entourage of spirits.

"I know you're there, you know," The ranger remarked to seemingly thin air as he dodged out of the way of a Dreamy Ghost's sonic scream, and sent four arrows through the spirit's chest, ending its existence in the material plane. "You can either stay hidden in the shadows where I'll eventually hunt you down, or you can reveal yourself now and we can settle this honorably."

A musical, mocking laugh floated to his ears, and Ethan immediately knew he faced far more than just the average Dreamy Ghost. A split-second fluctuation of reiatsu was all the warning he got, and he abruptly disappeared from sight as an unseen force suddenly crashed down on the spot he had vacated but a split-second ago, carving a sizeable crater in the ground.

Ethan reappeared several yards away, immediately knocking back the Dreamy Ghost next to him with a deft swing of his Dark Arund. The female spirit was thrown back into the surrounding forest, screeching in indignation, but Ethan paid it no heed. His eyes were completely focused on the crater that he had barely avoided getting buried in.

"That's an interesting ability you have, ranger." The same feminine, musical voice floated forth from the dust cloud that obscured the crater. "I've never encountered any of your kind before that had the ability to teleport."

Inwardly, Ethan smirked. "So you've finally come out of hiding at last. Truth be told, that isn't a teleportation technique. Rather, it's a form of high-speed movement that we use to traverse great distances in the blink of an eye. I call my version _Hirenkyaku, _though James' nature as a warrior requires him to use a different version called _Shunpo._"

"_Hirenkyaku _and _Shunpo... _the Flying Screen Step and the Flash Step, eh? Just like the Quincy archers and Shinigami swordsmen of old..." The voice answered from the dust cloud, and Ethan straightened, aiming his bow in the voice's direction and stringing in an arrow.

"I don't know what Quincy or Shinigami thing you're talking about, but I'll assume it's something from your era of existence, spirit." The ranger answered. "Now, why don't you step out of the dust cloud where I can see you, so that we may commence this duel face-to-face?"

The same mocking, musical laugh made itself heard again, and Ethan could swear he could feel the anticipation dripping in the spirit's voice. "If you insist. It's been so long since I've gazed upon a mortal face to face..."

A massive fluctuation of reiatsu emanated from the crater, and the smokescreen was swiftly blown away like dust in the wind, prompting Ethan to quickly raise an arm in front of his eyes to prevent himself from getting blinded by the dust. As the wind died down, Ethan lowered his arm, and the ranger's milky-white eyes widened in surprise.

"Ho... I knew you were more than your average Dreamy Ghost, but damn..." The ranger gave a long, low whistle as he beheld the sight of his opponent before him. "You must have been a real hit with the men back when you were alive."

Before him stood a tall, voluptuous beauty, her long, flowing mane of raven black hair a stark contrast to her snow-white skin. A beauty mark dotted the skin below the right of her lips, and her kimono hung loose, revealing the cleavage of her ample bosom - it was all Ethan could do not to stare.

The female spirit before him laughed, and cast her arms out to her side, her long, flowing kimono following her movements smoothly. "Oh, trust me, back when I was alive, the chances of men saying 'no' to me was non-existent. Even in death, I've already lost count of how many men have so easily fallen prey to my charms over the centuries. It's so little of a challenge, I was practically bored out of my mind. I really hope you'll put up more of a fight than they did, ranger." The beauty gave him a seductive wink, a flirtatious smile, and Ethan's own lips curved upwards in an anticipatory grin.

"Wanna bet on that, spirit?" The ranger shot back tauntingly, and the female spirit gave a hearty, musical laugh.

"Absolutely!" As Ethan watched, the ghost's hair began to fly about wildly, her sparkling blue eyes morphing into a hellish red as her teeth lengthened and sharpened like a shark's, and in a flash she was streaking straight towards him, her demonic eyes demanding blood.

* * *

The Dreamy Ghost's scream was loud enough that it attracted both James' and Black Crow's attention, and the two turned their heads simultaneously to behold the transformation of the lead Dreamy Ghost's, her metamorphosis from an astral beauty to a spirit of vengeance.

Turning back to Black Crow, James smirked. "I wouldn't bet on your lackeys winning. Ethan's a hell of a fighter, and he won't go down so easily."

His brow arching in contempt, the Tengu snorted. "My entourage willingly give their lives in my service, for they were my former subordinates when I was alive. Their wish is the same as mine - to have an end to this cursed, immortal existence. Should your archer friend over there manage to kill them, he would actually be doing them a favor."

"Well then, I guess I'd be doing you a favor too if I killed you as well, wouldn't I?" James declared cockily, and flicked his head to the side, flinging a stray bang of raven hair out of his eyes. "I won't hold my breath."

Abruptly, a burst of reiryoku erupted from Zangetsu's blade in a sudden Getsuga Tenshou attack, but Black Crow deftly ducked under the blast before it could even touch him. Unrelenting, James swung Zangetsu again as he shot another Getsuga Tenshou blast at Black Crow's feet, but the Tengu was too swift. Before the blast could even come close to impacting, the Japanese deity had leapt into the air, allowing the blast of reiryoku to explode harmlessly against the golden arm of the Buddha statue.

Cursing, James looked up at the Tengu, where it was poised in mid-air above him, its arms cast out to the side with two summoned katanas grasped in its hands, ready to descend upon him.

The crusader gave a cry, and leapt upwards to meet the Tengu's falling charge, flipping around in mid-air in a completely unexpected grappling maneuver.

To say that Black Crow was shocked when James suddenly wrapped both of his legs around his midsection in a scissoring maneuver was an understatement. Barely reacting in time, the Tengu thrust forward the two katanas it held in its grasp one by one, before James had the chance to attack with his own massive blade. However, the crusader was far defter than the deity expected, thanks to his Sharingan, and he avoided each thrust with split-second sharpness by jerking his head to the side.

Counterattacking, the crusader stabbed forward with Zangetsu while Black Crow still recovered from his attacks, and the deity barely avoided getting his head taken off with a last-second doge of his own.

Desperate, Black Crow slammed his left fist into James' gut, pummeling the wind out of the crusader and causing James to gasp out, more in surprise than pain. The crusader's legs' hold on him loosened, and the Tengu took the chance to break free, his wing flaring outwards as he attempted to take flight.

_Oh no you don't!_ James snarled to himself, and deftly he reached out with the hand that still grasped Zangetsu, wrapping his fingers around Black Crow's robe. Spinning around rapidly in mid-air before the Tengu could slip from his clutches, James hurled Black Crow at the statue with all his strength, but the deity again managed to enact a smooth recovery, landing nimbly upon the statue's head where his golden sword was embedded.

Black Crow's relief at finding his sword again was cut short as a keening warcry sounded from above him, and he looked up just in time to see James descending upon him with a righteous fury, his boot seconds away from enacting a high-speed meeting with the Tengu's face once again.

A last-second dodge had James' boot meet with the hilt of Black Crow's sword instead, and the blade burst forth from the statue's head as the force of the crusader's landing tore the blade free from its golden prison in a scream of tortured, bent gold metal. Laughing in triumph, Black Crow lunged forward and grabbed his blade again, before turning on James and attacking viciously.

Still recovering from his missed kick, James could do little else as he raised Zangetsu to block, bracing himself against the statue, but the force of the Tengu's blow knocked him free anyway, and he was sent tumbling away from the statue, slamming against the soil of the clearing as he crashed, rolling, into the ground.

Snarling in frustration, James quickly flipped himself back onto his feet as he let off a string of epithets, but he didn't have time to finish it off - Black Crow was all over him. Suddenly attacking with renewed speed and determination, the Japanese deity struck at James again and again, forcing the crusader on the defensive. Gasping for air as the Tengu attacked over and over with increasing strength behind every blow, it was all James could do not to be cut in two, desperately defending with Zangetsu's massive blade and dodging out of the way of Black Crow's blows whenever he could.

The Tengu swiped at his feet with his golden blade, and James leapt backwards into the air, avoiding getting his legs cut off. Panting, the winded crusader glanced up, only to realize that the slash had been a feint - he was in mid-air, vulnerable, and Black Crow right there to meet him, his golden sword poised over his shoulder, ready to cleave James in half.

A desperate, split-second parry was all the kept the crusader from being sliced open, but the damage had been done. The sheer strength of the blow had knocked Zangetsu from James' grip, and sent him groundwards once more. The crusader landed on one knee, completely unarmed, and a victim ripe for the taking.

Twisting his golden blade around in his grip, the Tengu cocked it horizontally at its shoulder, and thrust forward mightily, aiming his blade at James' heart. His Sharingan eyes wide open, staring at the blade hurtling towards his chest, James knew that deprived of Zangetsu, he had only one option left - it would probably leave Hiroshi very pissed at him for breaking another one of his devices, but it was either that, or his life.

His right arm, encased in the magical metal of the Devil Buster gauntlet, shot upwards and into the path of Black Crow's blade, and James braced himself for impact.

_

* * *

_

His eyes widening in surprise at the Ghost's sudden attack, Ethan quickly unbuttoned the left sleeve cuff of his chain mail suit, and let a pentacle-shaped cross fall out, hanging just below where he gripped his Dark Arund.

"_Heki_, Kojaku!" _[Heki: Pierce, Kojaku: Lone Sparrow]_

Abruptly, the material body of Ethan's Dark Arund was immediately incinerated, replaced by the body of a bow completely wreathed in and blazing with azure fire - nothing of the bow seemed to be solid, and it appeared to be completely composed of reiryoku.

The bow's sudden transformation was enough to cause the Dreamy Ghost to briefly hesitate, and that was enough for Ethan to draw the ethereal bowstring of his new spirit bow backwards; automatically, the spiritual bowstring suddenly grew an extension from where Ethan's fingers gripped it as it was drawn backwards, slowly materializing what appeared to be a Soul Arrow, though this one was a rich, azure blue. Before the ghost could even react, the spirit arrow suddenly multiplied into four, and Ethan released his bowstring, sending his arrows to meet the ghost's charge head-on.

_What!?_ The female spirit thought to herself right before the arrows impacted. The sheer power of the shots kicked up a dust cloud comparable to the one she herself had thrown up but moments ago, and when the dust cleared Ethan saw that the spirit had managed to raise her arms in front of her just in time to block his arrows from impacting on her vital points, sparing her the worst of the damage.

Cursing, the ghost swept her arms outwards, preparing to counterattack, when she realized that Ethan was no longer standing where he was a second ago.

From behind her, the ranger's voice suddenly sounded, uttering words in her native language that she had thought she would never hear again in her second lifetime.

"_Hakke, Rokujyuu Yon Shō!" [Eight Trigrams, Sixty-four Palms]_

_Impossible! That's the secret bloodline technique of the Hyuga clan! And this boy possesses the Byakugan! _Spinning around, she caught sight of the ranger just in time to see him nocking what appeared to be an insane amount of arrows into his bow all at once. Before she could even react, Ethan released his grip on Kojaku's bowstring, and the barrage of arrows streaked towards her one by one in torrential succession.

Each single arrow pierced through one of the three hundred and sixty one points through the channels that, within a living person's body, transferred and channeled mana - simply put, they served the same function for mana as blood vessels did for blood. Along the mana pathways, there were 361 nodes called _tenketsu_ that controlled the flow of mana like circuit breakers, and within those tenketsu were Eight Gates that controlled body function and strain levels. Abel was a user of the Eight Gates technique, but Ethan's study focused more on the Gentle Fist style of combat, subtstituting the hand-to-hand element of the style with his spirit arrows.

The lethality of the Gentle Fist style lay in its disruption of the mana pathway system - the entire network is enmeshed into one's body, and like blood vessels, it touches and interacts with every single living cell and passes through every organ. If the flow of spiritual energy to a section of the body were to be severed then that portion of the body would generally become numb and useless.

There was one time a Tauromacis had nearly gutted James in an ambush in the Ant Tunnels, and Ethan had used the Sixty-four Palms technique on the demon just in time to save James' hide; he had left the Tauro in a virtually quadriplegic state.

That very same technique was now being used on the Dreamy Ghost before him, and Ethan sent his arrows through the ghost's still-existing tenketsu with exponentially increasing speed, his Byakugan allowing him to deliver his shots with inhuman accuracy despite the speed at which he was shooting.

The spirit's scream resounded through the clearing as the ranger released the final, sixty-fourth arrow, piercing the tenketsu located where her heart used to be, but Ethan wasted no time exulting in his victory. Normally in a live person, having the heart's tenketsu sealed off would result in immediate cardiac arrest, but for obvious reasons, the Dreamy Ghost was merely severely injured, and wasn't convulsing on the floor in the throes of a heart attack.

If he didn't finish her off soon, she would recover her strength before he knew it, and the fight would drag on unneccessarily.

In the blink of an eye, Ethan was directly behind her, his spirit arrows poised and aimed at her chain link and soul sleep.

"You put up a good fight, spirit," The ranger commended as he began channeling mana into Kojaku's spirit arrow. "You actually had me release my Soul Slayer's _shikai_ and forced to me to use my Eight Trigrams' advanced techniques, but this is where it ends. Farewell, and may you find peace in the afterlife."

Ethan's fingers released their grip on Kojaku's ethereal bowstring, and the ranger murmured his final words of farewell.

_"Mortal Blow."_

The explosion of energy that signified the end of the Dreamy Ghost's un-life occurred the very same instant another shockwave rippled through the clearing, where Black Crow had finally met his match.

* * *

"Hmm..." Black Crow murmured in mild shock as blue fire blazed about the gauntlet that the crusader wore about his right arm - the very same gauntlet that now held his golden blade at bay, its enchanted edge completely unable to even dent the magical metals that composed the mysterious gauntlet. "You've got a trick up your sleeve."

"About time you noticed..." James' voice floated out cockily from behind the curtain of blue fire. "But if it's a trick you're looking for... then try _this!"_

Abruptly the crusader heaved his right arm with such herculean strength that Black Crow, his blade still embedded in the gauntlet's metal, was lifted bodily off the floor, and was flung clear across the clearing.

Recovering his wits just in time to land on his feet, Black Crow skidded across the ground for several feet, still shocked at the sudden surge of strength from the crusader. Throughout the entire fight the warrior had displayed inhuman feats of strength, speed, and endurance, and this could only mean one thing. "Looks like you too, are a..."

Turning around to regard his opponent, the Tengu's eyes widened in surprise when he saw that James was suddenly _right in front of him._ The crusader's right gauntlet blazed with azure fire, and the crusader shouted mightily as he thrust his fist forward with all of his strength, the punch aimed straight at Black Crow's face.

The Japanese deity barely raised his blade up in time to block the straight, but the sheer force of the blow literally sent him flying, rocketing backwards in a horizontal line that had him bowling through ranks of Dreamy Ghosts like a bowling ball through pins.

Grunting in surprise, Black Crow glanced downwards - which, in reality, was the direction where the crusader was and what used to be his front, because 'up' had suddenly become 'front' - and was once again bowled over by the crusader's phenomenal speed. James had somehow caught up with Black Crow during his brief airborne flight and, with a swift grab, had the Tengu's right ankle wrapped tightly in the Devil Buster's grasp.

A quick pull and suddenly Black Crow found his horizontal flight being reversed as he was yanked in James' direction, and he desperately swung his golden sword in an effort to counterattack.

He didn't even get the chance. Another gauntleted hand, clad in regular plate armor, clamped down on his sword arm, preventing him from resisting, and before him James had the Devil Buster raised high up - Black Crow only had a moment's notice before the magical gauntlet slammed down upon his face and stayed there, driving him straight into the ground below him headfirst and carving a miniature crater in the soil where his head had made its mark.

The shock of the impact jolted his sword from his hands, and it landed a mere foot away from his grasp, but retrieving his sword was the furthest thing from his mind right now.

James was going to town on his face with the Devil Buster.

Roaring in battle lust, James descended upon his opponent ruthlessly as he straddled his prone adversary, grabbed a fistful of silver-white hair with his other hand, and began whaling on his face over and over again with his insanely powerful gauntlet. James didn't know how long he sat there, the Tengu trapped beneath him, his every punch seemingly ricocheting off the spirit's face without the slightest effect.

Oh yes, the Tengu seemed to be feeling the pain all right, but the berserker within the crusader demanded blood to be spilt, bone to be crushed, and that had yet to happen! Every punch drove Black Crow's head an inch deeper into the soil beneath him, and the Tengu's fingers spasmed, hooking into claws, with every blow that the crazed crusader delivered.

Finally, several moments later, his rage-induced strength spent, James gave a final roar as he grabbed a fistful Black Crow's silver-white hair with the Devil Buster, and hurled the Tengu straight at the golden Buddha statue, the deity's golden blade following suit a split-second later.

Black Crow's body slammed against the Buddha statue with a massive _thud_ that even James could hear from where he stood, and the Tengu remained airborne, completely still, for the briefest of moments, before his own golden blade impaled him through the chest, pinning him to the statue.

For the longest, most drawn out moment, Black Crow simply hung there, limbs splayed out flat against the statue, as though in submission to the divine Buddhist power, and then his entire body went limp, a final breath escaping from his tortured lungs, the life leaving his supposedly immortal body.

Panting in exhaustion, James turned around to retrieve Zangetsu from where it had fallen. On his right arm the Devil Buster's azure light flickered dimly, the gauntlet having endured far more punishment than it had been designed to. Even as James walked, the gauntlet's power failed completely, and it literally fell to pieces on his hand, the individual components falling off one by one, disintegrating themselves as they fell to the ground, the failsafe Hiroshi had installed taking effect.

Meh. It's not like he was going to need it anymore anyway. Black Crow was done for, and for good. Once he retrieved Zangetsu, he would take the damned Tengu's nose, and he'd be one step closer to saving Tricia.

James had only taken a mere three steps towards his fallen Soul Slayer, when a familiar voice suddenly sounded from the statue.

"Getting better..."

His eyes widening in horror, James stopped completely in his tracks.

_No, no way, no way in hell can that son of a bitch still be alive after that!_

The crusader spun around, and lo and behold, Black Crow was still alive, his eyes wide open and boring straight into the crusader's. The Tengu's expression was completely free of pain, as though he didn't even have six feet of steel embedded in his vital organs.

Slowly, Black Crow braced his arms against the statue behind him and, his muscles flexing mightily, slowly began to extricate himself from the statue, moving inch by painstaking inch, all the while saying, "I would even go so far as to say that I underestimated your... _abilities._"

Black Crow grunted out the last word as he gave a final, mighty push, finally extracting himself from his pinned position on the statue, the bloody impalement wound where his sword was still embedded spurting blood. James could only stare, dumbfounded, as Black Crow landed, albeit a bit weakly, on both feet, his expression devoid of pain, as though having six feet of steel protruding out of the back of your ribs was something he experienced every day.

"You... How... how is that... _what are you?"_ James spluttered, his disbelief almost petrifying him. He had spent nearly all his strength while he had been submerged in his berserker's rage earlier, and now the crusader was completely exhausted. His limbs felt like leaden weights - it took all of the crusader's energy just to simply put one foot in front of the other. If Black Crow was still in shape to continue fighting, James wouldn't even last a moment should the battle be forced to continue.

Fortunately, though the Japanese deity didn't show it, Black Crow had indeed been gravely injured by the crusader's attacks. His external appearance was kept in a constant, immaculate state thanks to his immortal body, but any internal damage that he suffered stayed there, until it was healed over time.

Though his visage was unmarred, Black Crow's face felt like it had been rearranged by a cement mixer, thanks to James' berserker rage. And his chest - a red-hot spike of agony sliced against his every instant of awareness, lodged where his own blade had pierced his vital organs. Black Crow had felt such pain before, when he had first tried to take his own life upon learning of his immortality, and he was no stranger to it.

"We're the same..." The Tengu told the crusader as it grabbed the hilt of the blade protruding from its chest, and with a mighty pull, began extracting the blade from its body. "You and... _I_."

Grunting, Black Crow finally extracted the last of his blade from his chest, the impalement wound instantly closing up, leaving no outward trace of injury. However, the internal organs that James had decimated would not heal inwardly for some time - Black Crow was definitely _not_ in any shape to fight right now. Staggering as the blade burst out from his chest, Black Crow doubled over, panting, using his golden blade as a support to keep himself from falling.

"Wha... what are you talking about?" James asked uncertainly, not sure whether he should stay where he was, or make a break and try to grab Zangetsu before Black Crow tried to attack again.

"Your eyes, boy... They are a special power granted only to those special few of a certain bloodline... a bloodline that is all but extinct. My own bloodline died out with me, and I have been entombed in this cursed body ever since."

Slowly, a golden light began to envelope the Tengu, and Black Crow sighed. "It appears that you've dealt too much damage to my material body. That last blow you delivered with my sword should have killed me, but because it is my own blade, I cannot be killed by it - it would be counted as an attempt by myself to take my own life. My physical body is now being withdrawn to the astral plane, but I will be damned before I spend another decade trapped inside there while I recover."

As the Tengu began to fade from existence, Black Crow bore his kite-like gaze straight into James' own bloodred one, and instructed him, "I barely have the strength left for one final attack. We must have one last match, and you will have to deal the final blow, warrior. Honor this spirit's final request, and release me from this prison. "

As the Tengu spoke, six of his summoned katanas appeared behind him in a circle, floating lazily in the air, as though awaiting his command.

Understanding dawning upon him, James finally comprehended, and nodded. Black Crow was a warrior born, the same as him, even in life, and a death on the battlefield was the greatest glory one could achieve in his life. As Emperor Sutoku in life, Black Crow had been unable to achieve that glorious death in battle, instead having died in torment in exile. That was why he gave his all to fighting all who challenged him even in his second life as a Tengu, in seeking to end his immortality honorably through single combat.

James had no energy left to retrieve Zangetsu, but he had enough energy left for one last deed. James still had a few mana syrettes in his belt pouches - deftly reaching down to his belt and retrieving one of the the stimpaks, he stuck the tiny needle through the gap in his armor between his forearm and upper arm plates, injecting the concentrated potion into his bloodstream. Soon, the crusader felt his spiritual energy reserves being restored, granting him the strength for his final favor to the Japanese deity.

The crusader, unbuckling his left glove and pulling it off, raised both his hands in front of his chest. Performing several intricate hand signs in rapid succession, James then dropped into a crouch and thrust his left palm downwards, his fingers curled into a ball as his right hand gripped tightly onto his wrist.

It had been Abel who had originally pioneered this technique, using the principles of his elemental manipulation abilities as a White Knight, but its effectiveness in combat was extremely questionable due to the nature of its execution. Nevertheless he had taught it to James, who despite his inability as a Crusader to manipulate all the elements, managed to master the technique, and was the only one who could utilise it effectively thanks to his Sharingan eyes.

Mana was, in fact, pure, unadulterated energy in its basest form, formed from the spiritual particles, or _reishi_, within their bodies. Individuals with a certain elemental affinity could convert their body's spirital energy into refined elemental energy, turning into fire-based mana, or ice-based mana. Such was the basis of the powers of ice and fire mages, and the White Knights as well, but a little known fact was that elemental affinity was not limited to one's Job Class.

_All_ individuals possessed an elemental affinity, and it was up to them to discover and develop it through training.

Grunting in exertion, James concentrated all the mana he could into his left arm, until slowly, a blue glow surrounded his entire hand, and an azure mass of electricity formed around his palm, crackling loudly like a harnessed thunderstorm.

The sheer strength of the harnessed energy was astounding - the very ground beneath James was disintegrated as the crusader dropped lower into his crouch, his legs tensing in preparation for a mighty dash. His gaze steadily locked on the crusader, Black Crow's eyes narrowed in recognition of the technique.

_Body activation... He's drawing out all the latent spiritual energy in his body for one final thrust..._

With a mighty shout, the crusader literally exploded from his crouch, leaving behind a trail of dust, as he sprinted towards Black Crow in a straight line, his left arm cocked backwards where his hand was sheathed in lightning.

_Yes... This _is _the power of the Uchiha clan._

Roaring, James shot forward like a bullet, travelling at such an incredible speed that any normal human would have had their vision end up being tunneled. The speed at which the technique was executed, combined with the fact that the user had to run in a straight line, caused a tunnel vision-like effect, and this allowed the enemy to easily counter the attack, making it a potentially lethal move for the user. This was why Abel was unable to use the technique he himself had discovered; because he lacked James' Sharingan eyes, which never failed to take in every detail regardless of how fast the crusader was moving.

Even as he sprinted towards Black Crow, the Japanese deity thrust an arm towards him, and his six summoned katanas began streaking in his direction one by one in rapid succession, spinning like oversized buzz-saws.

James didn't even need to consciously dodge. His Sharingan eyes did practically all the work for him as his body reacted automatically, and he deftly sidestepped each and every one of the blades with agility that far surpassed that of a normal human.

Before the Tengu could even blink, James was right in front of him, the sound of a thousand birds chirping following his fist as he plunged it into the Tengu's heart, and Black Crow finally remembered the name of the technique that he would take with him to the grave - again.

_"**Chidori**."_

* * *

A giant spear of lightning erupted outwards through Black Crow's back as James' hand, a virtual knife sheathed in electricity, cleaved right through the deity's chest without so much of _any_ resistance at all. The sheer force of the blow literally blew a smoking hole in the Tengu's virtually indestructible body, and this time the damage stayed, the magic sustaining Black Crow's life finally ebbing and dying out.

His face right in front of the Tengu's, James stared into Black Crow's eyes as the deity died before him, the mutual respect between two warriors holding even in death. The deity's hands, locked around James' wrist where it protruded from his chest, slowly loosened their grip, and eventually they went limp, falling to his sides like so much dead weight, the light in the deity's eyes dying out like the embers of a fire.

Gasping in exhaustion, James withdrew his hand from where it had embedded itself in Black Crow's chest, extracting it in a welter of gore as blood and bone was sent flying. Grimacing as his opponent's body toppled to the ground, James shook the worst of the blood off his hand, wiping the rest off on his pants. Once he had cleaned the worst of it off, he quickly straightened before Black Crow's immobile body, and bowed in respect to his fallen opponent, administering the last rites as he wished Sutoku's spirit a peaceful journey to the afterlife.

Ethan found him there several moments later, his head still bowed in respect to the fallen deity as he murmured prayers under his breath, wishing godspeed to the departed Tengu's spirit. The ranger set a hand on the crusader' shoulder, and James turned to face him, his eyes solemn.

"He was a good fighter, James, but we came here to get a job done. Do what you came here to do." Ethan told him somberly, and the crusader nodded, kneeling down to perform what he viewed as the most distasteful deed of most excursions - violating the corpse of one's opponent to retrieve magical artifacts or items from them.

It was only a matter of moments before James had the Tengu's nose tucked away safely in his pack, and they were well away from the clearing, leaving behind the Tengu's body and the empty kimonos of his former entourage in the clearing, and bringing home the scars of their encounter. James' shoulder still hurt like hell from its dislocation earlier, and he bore several deep scratches on his plate armor where Black Crow had nearly nailed him with his sword, some of them leaking blood where the deity's blade had managed to penetrate. When he took off his suit later, his body would probably be covered in livid bruises.

Ethan was hardly in any better shape. There were several tears in his chain mail suit where the Dreamy Ghosts' attacks had met their mark, and the ranger bore several scratches as well. His fingers especially were bleeding from several deep cuts, particularly from the use of his sixty-four palms technique, which required him to draw and redraw Kojaku's bowstring back at inhuman speeds.

All in all, the both of them were battered, bleeding, and exhausted, and for them, it was just another day at work in the Marauder's guild.

As the two, reaching Zipangu, boarded the airship that would take them back to Victoria Island, James looked back out in the direction of the forest they had came from, and solemnly reflected on the night's events, vowing that the sacrifices made today would not go to waste.

He _would_ save Tricia.

_Black Crow... I thank you for your sacrifice, and nothing I can do will ever be able repay you now. Godspeed on your journey to the afterlife, Sutoku._

Turning back to the airship, James clambered up the ladder to the airship's deck behind Ethan, and the giant aircraft soon departed from the Japanese port in a rush of wind.

* * *

A/N: Ok, that certainly went on for a lot longer than I expected. Kudos to those who got the subtle scene references, and take a cookie from the jar before you leave your review - I've got plenty of extras bought from Subway ;)

CrapPishh, I hope this piece is good enough for your challenge, and if it's not, well, I've got five more instalments coming up =P


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